TORRINGTON, NEW SOUTH WALES

'Torrington' is a small village in northern New South Wales in Tenterfield Shire. It is 29 kilometres east of Deepwater and north east of Tenterfield (North-East) and 61 kilometres from Glen Innes(South-East). It is situated on a plateau known as The Mole Tableland in close proximity to the Queensland border on the New England Tablelands, approximately 1141 metres (3744ft) above sea level. There used to be a hotel there, but it shut down in January 1999 when the license was to be transferred to Sydney for the Olympic games, but with objections to the Liquor Board the Hotel was re-opened in December 2000 with a restaurant license and the original license was allowed to be transferred to Sydney. However, there was difficulty with the holding company of the freehold and the pub was permanently closed in October 2003.

Contents

History

Droughts

Fossicking and Tourism

References

History

The discovery of the extremely rich Torrington Tin Lode in 1881 created much excitement but in a very short time the small prospectors had lost control to overseas mining companies, the precursors of today's multi-nationals. In the 1920's, 500 men were employed at the mines. There were sixteen batteries working, and the community enjoyed the convenience of five general stores, butcher shop, cafes, bakery, billiard rooms, police station, post office, churches, hotel and many sporting facilities in Torrington and the two now defunct satellite villages of Tungsten and Bismuth which were both approximately 7 kiometres north and west of Torrington respectively. Today, there is scarcely any indication that either of the satellite villages ever existed.
The first rural land release for grazing occurred in 1931 when a block of 1068 acres north of Torrington was granted by the Lands Department. This was followed by the general granting of further lands both north, south and west of Torrington over the next 50 years, for grazing purposes, but primarily most of the Torrington pendant remains in its natural state.
Torrington also had a saw mill which used Stringybark trees taken from the surrounding heavily timbered pendant but this mill closed in the 1960s. There is still a small timber mill operating not far from Torrington on the Deepwater Road which produces hardwood timber to order.
In 1981 Torrington celebrated its centenary, and was officially classified as a village.

Droughts

The average rainfall over the 10 years to 2000 was 39.23 inches. After the short sharp drought of 1982/3, in the twenty two year period 1983 to 2005 there were many short term droughts. For instance in October 1991 all northern New South Wales and southern Queensland were in extreme drought conditions. Again in 1994 a bad drought continued until January 1996, but worse was to come! In 2002 Torrington got 24 inches and again in 2005 it had 30 inches for the year. This drought broke in 2006.

Fossicking and Tourism

Mining has given way to fossicking and tourism and now visitors enjoy the spectacular scenery of rocky granite outcrops, steep gorges, gently flowing streams as well as fossicking for topaz, quartz and the many minerals found in the area. The population of Torrington is approximately 85 people. Unfortunately the last general store was closed some years ago but Torrington has a caravan park with caravans to rent which caters for the tourists and fossickers.

References